On the forging of faith

Don't make the mistake of asking God to increase your faith unless you're prepared for the testing of it. Your faith isn't really tested on whether or not the donut shop is gonna have a chocolate eclair by the time you get there your faith gets tested when steaks are high. The cost is high. And there is a considerable amount of what the world would considered to be reasonable fear involved if the consequences come to pass.

You could compare faith to a steel blade of a sword if it's not forged if it's just hot metal it's gonna break easily. So the blacksmith takes it to the fire and gets it hot just about to the point of melting and hounds on it with a hammer repeatedly and then dip it in the cold water to shock it. This builds strength and durability to where it will hold up under severe conditions of battle.

It's important to know that we are not in a position to go out and find novel ways to test God. I think a lot of people are under the misconception that we have to test our faith by testing what God will do. No this is not the God of the universe. God provides the circumstances and his own good pleasure and it is timing and when he wants to test our faith he does so with the states are high for us in ways that are beyond our control and usually not with regard to things that we want or desire.